Category Archives: reviews

Reviews / feedback / comments on books, movies, television, technology, food, etc. (These might be short snippets and not long reviews)

The Police

Posted on July 17, 2007 | 1 comment

I saw The Police in concert tonight at the Palace in Auburn Hills. They were excellent!!!! You’d never know these guys hadn’t toured in years, any other reunion (or county fair concert) I’ve ever seen you could tell everyone was out of practice, but not these guys.

I had a great seat, I wasn’t real close but I was a few rows off the main floor, I had a way better seat than the people who were 15 feet from me on the main floor that (I think) paid a lot more. They had an incredible stage setup, huge video displays and great camera angles.

Here’s the run down on the guys:

  • Sting – Awesome singer. He probably looks less old than the rest of the gang. (I don’t think he did any of his own songs, but his son’s band did open).
  • Stewart Copland – Excellent on the instruments, probably better than the other guys. Not sure what he’s done lately on his own (remember when he did the theme for The Equalizer TV series?).
  • Andy Summers – Looked a little ragged (sorry Andy). I’ve seen him in concert (he opened for Tangerine Dream), I thought he was a lot more mellow.

    I took a few photos, but I don’t know how to get them off the (stupid) Verizon RAZR v3 phone I have from work (my Treo is in the shop). I can’t seem to bluetooth them or e-mail them to a regular e-mail account, anyone?

    And what was up with the really old guitar of Sting? It looked in pretty sad shape, there must be a story (and someone must know it).

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    Indigo Girls – Act 2 in Ravinia

    Posted on July 15, 2007 | Leave a comment

    So I’m a little behind on the Ravinia concert updates, so here we go.

    As all Indigo Girl concerts go, all the fans know all the lyrics and sing along to all the songs. Okay, so not every song, but pretty much every song. By the end of the concert my ears were ringing a little bit and it’s not because of the speakers, it was because of the fans singing.

    The concert was excellent, one of the better ones I’ve seen of theirs (I’d guess I’ve seen them about 10 times). Philadelphia was one of the best, maybe the farther I go the better they get? And I’d have to say the time I saw them in Lilith Fair (Auburn Hills, MI) was probably the worst. But I digress…

    So it was great and they had everyone going from the beginning, I was a little worried since Brandi Carlile tried to get us to sing along to something and it bombed. We all cheered and sang and applauded over and over. Brandi sang backing on a song. They played some more and Amy Ray sang Romeo and Juliet and it was incredible, it’s one of my favorite songs of hers and she totally nailed it. And Brandi came out and sang Kid Fears, she did the Michael Stipe (REM) part and it gave me chills (I’m getting them even as I type this weeks later), it was amazing. Then IG just continued (and didn’t stop) with an awesome concert, it was well worth the trip. I’ll finish up my review in part 3 (that I promise to post soon).

    I’ve got the word “dancing” here in my notes, but I’m not sure exactly why I wrote that. I must have had an anecdote related to that and I assumed I’d remember…

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    Limited Edition Alpha-Bits

    Posted on July 13, 2007 | 2 comments

    So about 18 months ago I mentioned that Post removed all the sugar from Alpha-Bits cereal. Not only that, they removed all the flavor! They were awful!!!

    So someone e-mailed me last week about the new “Special Edition” dark blue box that was out. Here’s the thing, the box says “special edition” but not what’s “special” about it. THe box does say it’s sweetened but that’s it. Very strange.

    It’s like the old Alpha-Bits are back. Very yummy! The last box I bought was the un-sweetened kind and I didn’t even finish the first bowl. I hope these last a while. I which there was a place to vote or something they should never return to the awful bits they’ve been trying to peddle for the last year…

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    Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

    Posted on July 12, 2007 | Leave a comment

    So I’m not the largest Harry Potter fan, I’ve read the books, but I think I missed the last movie. I got dragged to the latest one but I did enjoy it. Except for the flying in the opening sequence the effects were awesome. They cut so much out of the books (and the books keep getting bigger), it’d probably be better if they’d make the movies twice as long and just release them in two parts (but twice as often) and make them ‘to be continued’…

    The parts when the magistrate (government) were nosing around the school with what should be taught and how it should be taught were hysterical, especially the parts about the standardized testing.

    Harry is starting to look pretty old, I’m not sure how him and the gang are going to make it to the 7th movie without looking like 5th year college students.

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    I’m really liking (Will) Traveler

    Posted on July 12, 2007 | Leave a comment

    After the pilot, the next few episodes of Traveler were a little slow (and complicated) and I didn’t really think I’d get into it. But after that I was hooked! It had the chase scenes and the conspiracy and the action but they didn’t waste time repeating themselves all the time like so many other shows do. It’s like they’re Jack Bauer and they’ve been falsely accused of bombing a museum. On paper the guy who did it doesn’t seem to exist so they’ve got to evade the law and prove that Will exists and that they didn’t do it.

    This weeks show was packed with twists and turns and ended with a great twist. Unfortunately next week is the season finale, this has got to be the shortest season I’ve seen, it was only eight episodes. As sad as I am that it’s only eight, I prefer that over them stretching the same story out over 15 or 20 episodes. I’m not familiar with the directors/producers but I’ll watch more if they make it.

    FYI, on a non-related note, the new season of Psych starts Friday on USA.

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    Transformers – The Movie

    Posted on July 3, 2007 | 2 comments

    So I was never a huge Transformers fan. I never understood the reasoning/idea of the robots Transforming into cars (please don’t try to explain it to me) as a great story-line even for the comics. But the effects and the Michael Bay action couldn’t keep me away.

    THe effects were awesome, lots of action, lots of destruction and a bit of campy humor. I was totally into the movie and the chase scenes and the explosions. It did take more than a few minutes to set the movie up, but since the movie was two hours and twenty minutes I really won’t complain about that. My biggest complaint is to ditch the little robot that transforms into the tape deck, but they probably needed something that wouldn’t totally slaughter the humans…

    If it interests you, go see it, you’ll love it. My piece of trivia for this movie: the voice of Optimus Prime is the same guy who did the voice for the cartoons.

    I still don’t get the idea of the robot/car transformations, but I certainly want my car to be able to do it!

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    Brandi Carlile – Act 1 in Ravinia

    Posted on July 2, 2007 | 1 comment

    So back to the concert in Ravina that I’ve mentioned sever times already. Brandi Carlile was the first act, she’s big enough these days that I’m surprised she didn’t get mentioned in the listings for the concert. She was incredible, I really like the songs on her current album and she played quite a few songs in the forty minutes that she was up there. Man, she can belt out a tune. Any & Emily came out and did a song with her which I never realized that they sang with her on the album.

    So Brandi has changed a bit in the last year since I saw here in Ann Arbor. When she was there she was excellent but she was kind of casual about her look (in a good way). When I saw the video for The Story I noticed how much makeup and hair-do work she had done, I didn’t even realize it was her at first (and who else would it have been). She still had her jeans and cowgirl boots on, but she definitely was still a bit more made up than I’ve seen her before (in person and album covers, etc.) and the jeans seemed a bit more low-cut than how I picture her normally. Speaking of last year’s concert, I do recall her being very grateful and chatty about Grey’s Anatomy but it didn’t get a mention at all this concert.

    She mentioned she was a huge Indigo Girls fan and tried to get us to sing along to a song (she knows everyone sings along to every Indigo Girls song) but it was a hard one, we didn’t didn’t do so good, we did better singing with some songs that she didn’t encourage us to sing on.

    After her concert she cam back out and sang “Kid Fears” with IG, she did the Michael Stipe (from REM) part. She was incredible, it actually gave me chills when I heard it.

    She sang more with IG, but that’s another post (or two).

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    Waitress

    Posted on July 2, 2007 | 2 comments

    So I went to see Waitress, starring Keri Russell, at the Main Art Theater (in Royal Oak, MI). I like Keri, unfortunately there is something about the parts she plays that I generally don’t like. But the reviews have been giving her great acclaim for this movie. Rightly so, she did an excellent job and I really liked her and her character in this film.

    She plays a small-town waitress in a rotten marriage who makes pies. These aren’t ordinary pies, they’re extra-ordinary pies. She thinks these pies out according to her mood, they might be called:

  • Falling in Love Chocolate Mousse pie.
  • Bubble-gum Mermaid Pie.
  • Pregnant Miserable Self Pitying Loser Pie – Lumpy oatmeal with fruitcake mashed in. Flambé of course!
  • I Hate My Husband Pie – You take bittersweet chocolate and don’t sweeten it. You make it into a pudding and drown it in caramel.

    And everyone just thinks they are the best thing ever. She’s trying to save money and wants to win a $25,000 pie contest so that she can finally leave her husband.

    The interactions with the other waitresses and with Joe, the old coot in one of the booths, (played by Andy Griffith) are excellent and I laughed aloud in the theatre many times. Her Ob-Gyn is played by Nathan Fillion and they have some hysterical interactions and strange conversations, so strange it makes me wonder if they had a script, or if they didn’t if they re-edited it to make it so goofy. I loved it!

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